sunstrip

At a couple of the pet stores that I frequent....I noticed that quit often they have a piece of bamboo shoot floating on the top of the water in almost all the tanks...is there some benefit to the tank or fish by doing this ?

Narcicius

looks cool

susitna-flower

"Lucky bamboo" is one of the plants that can live in a tank....It will stay alive in water, even though it will grow best close to the light...It is a heavy feeder, and should help use up nitrates in a tank. They are hard to keep down - thus you see them floating.

A "nitrate filter" made of plants in a container with tank water circulated through slowly, would go far to removing the nitrates that are the end product of the nitrogen cycle, and cut water changes.

Threads about this are posted in DIY by timandkaren...

Butterfly

Bamboo does fine as long as the leaves are out of the water. I had a piece rooted in sand and growing out the top of the tank for a long time.
Carol

Narcicius

Wow I didn't know bamboo was so beneficial to an aquarium.

Butterfly

There are a lot of house plants that love to have just their roots dangle in the water and boy they slurp those Nitrates up.
Carol

Narcicius

Any examples of "dangling root" plants?

Butterfly

Narcicius

That's pretty cool thanks

sirdarksol

Mondo grass, while not useful submerged, can grow with its roots submerged, growing very well.
I saw somewhere that Peace Lilies could grow submerged. I saw nothing that backed this up, but the fact that someone had one growing in their tank suggests that one would do well with its roots submerged.
Any type of ivy that can be rooted by soaking a node in water can grow with its roots submerged. I have a number of ivy plants that have no dirt, they just get fed fertilizer periodically.

One warning, in case you ever think about it. There is a relatively common houseplant that has big, green, verigated (sp) leaves that grow on huge sugar-like canes. This plant can root in water, just like lucky bamboo (which, I think, is more related to this plant than to actual bamboo). However, it is not a good idea to use in aquariums. One of the plant's nicknames is "dumb man's sugar-cane" because it's poisonous. Not positive it would hurt the fish, but not a chance I'd want to take.

sunstrip

Thanks for the responce (everyone)...I did a search for the bamboo plants (and seen and read that thread) and all pretty much talked about the benefits and the fact that the leaves had to be out of the water...was mainly wondering why they would just toss a 6 or 7 inch piece of bamboo (no leaves) into the tanks to float around.....I'm going to assume that (while they are living)...the pieces absorb nitrates and provide the fish with a small amount of food Would I be correct in assuming so

sunstrip

Anybody ?..LOL..I know it may seem that I'm asking the same bamboo question as everybody else....but if you read my post..i'm not asking about planting bamboo...just the fact that many stores just have a piece of it floating...anyways..not gonna repeat...all's cool...I'll figure it out...LOL

Narcicius

No problem and don't worry about the post, its hard to make people mad here, (unless you do something to your fish!!!)

Dino

This plant is also known as dumb cane.
The sap from this plant causes mammal mucus membranes to swell.
Once placed on the tounge and inside of the mouth, the swelling can cause a person to be unable to speak, thus the dumb.

I too would advise not keeping this plant around kids or animals that might chew onit.

Narcicius

wow that dumb cane sounds pretty scary(for fish anyway, I think it might be pretty funny if a person tried to eat it.).

Dino

It can cause swelling to the point the person is not able to breath.

sirdarksol

A coworker had a friend who took a big bite out of one of the leaves, just to see what it did. The guy didn't know what the plant was, he was just bored. In general, it's not fatal, but, as Dino said, it can be.

Butterfly

If you notice most plants at the LFS aren't planted, they just kind of let them lay in the water. Bamboo just floats better so to answer your question : I think their just being lazy and letting it float.
carol